From Kinematics to Dynamics: Learning to Refine Hybrid Plans for Physically Feasible Execution
Organizations: Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er Sheva, Israel · Stein Faculty of Computer and Information Science, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er Sheva, Israel
Abstract
In many robotic tasks, agents must traverse a sequence of spatial regions to complete a mission. Such problems are inherently mixed discrete-continuous: a high-level action sequence and a physically feasible continuous trajectory. The resulting trajectory and action sequence must also satisfy problem constraints such as deadlines, time windows, and velocity or acceleration limits. While hybrid temporal planners attempt to address this challenge, they typically model motion using linear (first-order) dynamics, which cannot guarantee that the resulting plan respects the robot's true physical constraints. Consequently, even when the high-level action sequence is fixed, producing a dynamically feasible trajectory becomes a bi-level optimization problem. We address this problem via reinforcement learning in continuous space. We define a Markov Decision Process that explicitly incorporates analytical second-order constraints and use it to refine first-order plans generated by a hybrid planner. Our results show that this approach can reliably recover physical feasibility and effectively bridge the gap between a planner's initial first-order trajectory and the dynamics required for real execution.
Figures & tables
| Hyperparameter | Value | Hyperparameter | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learning Rate | Target KL Div | 0.015 | |
| Clip Ratio ( ) | 0.2 | Discount ( ) | 0.99 |
| Min Clip Ratio ( ) | 0.05 | GAE | 0.95 |
| Batch Size | 16 | Horizon | 8 |
| Entropy Coeff. | 0.01 | Rollout Size | 64 |
| Value Loss Coeff. | 0.5 | Epochs | 1 |
| Domain | Instances | Makespan Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| AUV-2D | 20 | |
| Norm-AUV-2D | 20 | |
| OnAir-Refuel | 10 | |
| Sailing | 10 |
Robot Task Planning
Robot task planning turns goals and observations into executable actions while coordinating skills, motion, uncertainty, and safety.
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